1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bank note dispensing method and to a bank note dispensing apparatus using the dispensing method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a depositor submits his bank pass-book and a withdrawal slip at the window of a bank, a cashier ordinarily examines the withdrawal slip and dispensing bank notes and coins to him in accordance with the requested sum. During this dispensing work, the cashier takes out and counts the desired number of bank notes and coins and then hands them to the depositor.
This work is complicated and invites counting mistakes so that trouble may arise which cause problems in cash administration. Thus money dispensing apparatus for carrying out cash dispensing operations automatically has recently been developed and put into practice. One such apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-61817 owned by the present Applicant.
The money dispensing apparatus disclosed is constructed to include an operating device, to which data such as money sums and denominations are fed, and bank note and coin dischargers for automatically dispensing the bank notes and coins in response to commands from the operating device. The bank note discharger is equipped with bank note reserve boxes for different (e.g., four) denominations and a bank note feed out mechanism. On the other hand, the coin discharger is equipped with coin reserve boxes for different (e.g., five) denominations. The money dispensing apparatus thus constructed can dispense money automatically in response to the operations of the operating device with the resultant advantages that work can be reduced and that the speed and accuracy of the dispensing work can be improved. Since, however, the money dispensing apparatus is so made that it can dispense the money of all the denominations that are circulating in Japan at present, it has a disadvantage in that the complicated mechanism used make it expensive.
The bank note boxes of the aforementioned bank note discharger are equipped with a near-end mechanism which is made operative to determine the quantity of bank notes in stock from the thickness of the stack of bank notes and to generate a warning when the supply is low. When the warning is generated by the near-end mechanism, the cashier at once interrupts the bank note dispensing operation so that the supply of bank notes can be replenished.
With the use of such a near-end mechanism, however, the warning is not always generated when the numbers of bank notes drops to exactly the same level. Normally, the number of bank notes remaining is smaller than the number of new ones to be inserted. If only few bank notes are left when the warning is generated, the number of the bank notes that must be prepared in advance to replenish the machine stock will become so unfixed as to invite a practical inconvenience as well as another disadvantage that the mechanism of the bank note discharger will become complicated.